Bad Writing

Did you know that people actually compete for the best worst writing?  Every year since 1982, writers entered their worst opening sentences to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.   This year's winning line came from Cathy Bryant of Manchester, England:
  

"As he told her that he loved her she gazed into his eyes, wondering, as she noted the infestation of eyelash mites, the tiny deodicids burrowing into his follicles to eat the greasy sebum therein, each female laying up to 25 eggs in a single follicle, causing inflammation, whether the eyes are truly the windows of the soul; and, if so, his soul needed regrouting."

You can see the whole list of winners here.  The following are some of my favorites:

She slinked through my door wearing a dress that looked like it had been painted on … not with good paint, like Behr or Sherwin-Williams, but with that watered-down stuff that bubbles up right away if you don’t prime the surface before you slap it on, and – just like that cheap paint – the dress needed two more coats to cover her. — Sue Fondrie, Appleton, WI

 As I gardened, gazing towards the autumnal sky, I longed to run my finger through the trail of mucus left by a single speckled slug – innocuously thrusting past my rhododendrons – and in feeling that warm slime, be swept back to planet Alderon, back into the tentacles of the alien who loved me. — Mary E. Patrick, Lake City, SC

Girls, girls, girls

Currently Baby Chuck is a bit fussier than usual.  He's got three teeth pushing through his gums. Plus, we've recently acquired an unwanted roommate.  A mosquito somehow slipped into our apartment and is now feasting on everyone.  I'm doing my best to hunt that sucker down, but she's a slippery one.

I've tried giving Baby Chuck lots of hugs and teething toys to help soothe him.  But when nothing seems to work, I turn to this video to help. Baby Chuck sure enjoys his Korean pop music!

 

Strong women

Here are some photos from this past weekend:

Hubby, Baby Chuck, and I were fortunate enough to hang out with some old friends that we met while in grad school.  Like Katie, these three are also lovely, amazingly talented, and hard working.  I look up to them so much and I'm glad they got to meet Baby Chuck.

Welcome home

 Hubby's back from Texas. 

We're glad to have him home.

Goodbye Katie!

Our apartment is quiet again.

I miss her already.

Why do I always take photos of our feet?

“In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”  ~ C.S. Lewis